The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has confirmed that Telstra is within its rights to slap a price cap on its "unlimited" ADSL and cable plan.
The Ombudsman has been looking into the issue since receiving in excess of 50 email complaints overnight from disgruntled users who were told of the revised Freedom Plan by Telstra yesterday.
Customers who subscribe to the telco's Freedom Plan -- advertised as an "unlimited" service -- will have data download restricted to three gigabytes per month as of July 5.
Additional downloading will incur a fee of 35 cents per megabyte.
"It appears Telstra has complied to the terms and conditions of its contract," a TIO spokesperson told ZDNet.
"If customers can show that they don't believe Telstra has then we'll look into it," she added.
The TIO said it will look at consumer complaints on a case-by-case basis, but "generally, if its just a complaint about Telstra changing its policy it seems that Telstra is in its rights to do that," according to the spokesperson.
Telstra denies that the Freedom Plan was ever sold or described as an unlimited service.
"It was never unlimited usage, it was always a service that had an Acceptable User Policy," Telstra spokesperson Stuart Gray told ZDNet in an earlier interview.
The Ombudsman admits that the 'acceptable user' term has always been "a bit of a grey area".
"The TIO understands that this has caused some confusion and dissatisfaction now, but it hopes it will clarify BigPond's obligation and what the consumer can expect in terms of service," she added.
Telstra has said it will release Freedom Plan users from contracts if they don't want to maintain them.
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